The Future of Vaping

This entry was posted on March 18, 2016 by VE Admin.

On May 20th of this year the TPD (Tobacco Primary Directive) comes into effect in Europe. We expect the U.S. will follow with a similar set of Regulation although the FDA is still yet to make a decision, so these changes are not likely to be enforced until 2017/18.

So what is going to change on May 20th? Well here’s a run down:

• All flavours will have to be rigorously tested and meet certain standards through the EU notification process.

• No E-Liquid bottles larger than 10ml.

• Nicotine strength limited to 20mg.

• Child-proof E-liquid bottles.

• All E-Cigarette hardware will require testing for emissions and consistency.

• No Tanks larger than 2ml.

• Tanks/Clearomisers must be completely leak-proof.

• E-Cigarette advertising to be banned across all media channels although websites can continue to operate.

What’s Vaper Empire’s opinion on the new regulation?

Regulation was inevitable so we are happy to see that a set of standards have been introduced. It is also encouraging to see that the EU have allowed medium-sized business to continue to trade. The costs involved to meet the regulations are expensive but achievable.

However there are elements of the TPD that will probably slow innovation and prevent people moving from tobacco to E-Cigarettes. The advertising ban will certainly do this as people will be less exposed to Vaping and their chances of learning about the benefits of switching to E-Cigs will be significantly reduced. Also the hardware restrictions could potentially drive E-Cigarettes backwards to cartridge based systems impeding innovation.
At this point it is too early to say how strictly the regulation will be imposed and only time will tell how destructive it might be. The reality is that over the past few years 1000’s of new E-Cigarette vendors have managed to create a livelihood courtesy of Big Tobaccos profits. Regulation could be the beginning of their fight back. Lets see!